(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of preventing defective germination or growth of a plant.
(2) Description of the Related Art
So far, a plant, which suffers from the defective germination or defective growth such as rosette-forming during the growth after the germination, is subjected to care of health of the seedling in a cell tray or a pot and kept cold for a predetermined period of time, thereby the defective germination or rosette-forming at high temperature is prevented from occurring.
As to a seed of plant for appreciation, several ten thousands seedlings per 10 ares of field are required. When the seedling needs care of health as mentioned above, it has been very difficult to carry out the care of health of the seedling from the viewpoint of facilities or workability.
Therefore recently, a refrigerating treatment technique of seeds has attracted a considerable attention.
The refrigerating treatment technique of seeds is a technique, in which seeds are preserved in cooled water, and usually can be easily carried out. However, when the seed is small, for example when a body of the seed is as small as 1 mm or less, it is difficult to uniformly sow such seeds. It is all the more difficult to sow wet seeds preserved in water as described above. Since the seeds once wetted are sensitive to high temperature, the drying of such seeds should be performed at relatively low temperature nearly room temperature in order to make the sowing easy, causing an inefficient treatment and significant deterioration in the germination rate. Especially, with regard to a plant for appreciation such as a Eustoma russellianum, an effect of the refrigerating treatment is lost or the plant itself becomes extinct.
When the seeds are pelletized seeds, they are not suited to the preservation in cooling water, therefore the above refrigerating treatment technique cannot actually be adapted thereto.
In this respect, a treatment has been proposed, in which the so-called “fluid gel” consisting of granular macromolecular water absorbing entity is employed and the seeds are dispersed in the fluid gel to preserve therein. However, when the seeds are dispersed in the fluid gel before the refrigeration, the fluid gel takes off from the water, failing in holding the seeds. Moreover, it has been difficult to uniformly disperse the seeds, therefore the accuracy of the sowing deteriorates even when the seeds are sown with being dispersed in the fluid gel, and then it has been difficult to sow the seeds according to a plan.